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January 2022 Discussion of Wrestling


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So apparently the WWE tried to get Jeff Hardy back because of course they did

From the new WON

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Here is an update on Jeff Hardy. John Laurinaitis called Jeff Hardy to get him back a few weeks ago, including an offer to put him in the 2022 Hall of Fame class. Hardy turned it down and asked for his drug test results because he knew he wasn’t going to test positive for recreational drugs. It took Hardy and his wife six weeks to get the results back. There is a feeling right now that this is one guy they don’t want in AEW because of the realization the Hardy Boys will be revitalized as an act given the level of teams like the Young Bucks, FTR, Santana & Ortiz, Penta & Fenix and so many others. Hardy is still under contract with WWE through 3/9 so AEW can’t make a legal offer to him, but the belief is that unless he goes back to WWE, which at this point doesn’t look like it will happen, he would be AEW bound

 

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So I’m just going to say it… He straight up faked it at the house show to force his firing. The WWE realized it, and are trying to convince him to change his mind now. 

I’m stunned that it worked so well. 

Didn’t this happen already with another wrestler in another company in some form in the past?

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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I been thinking Hardy faked his way out of his contract the entire time. And it feels like I'm saying the quiet part out loud, but anyways, what is Hardy's gimmick his entire career if not tranced-out post-rave bastion of phychedelica?

I'm genuinely amused that they were gonna celebrate this guy known to use meth in his past by labeling him The Shaman as if shamans aren't widely known for using the strongest, uh, medicines known to man. And they're surprised he just fucked off in response? It was a truly shamanistic response, teach them corporate simpletons a lesson.

It's all stupid and I still don't see what either Hardy has to offer on-screen for AEW. Granted, their ring work is probably up to snuff, but they seem like relics of wrestling nerd-dom to me.

That said, bring him on. I'm always up for a surprise. 

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It’s going to be a while before somebody can try this again. The WWE won’t take the bait the next time. 
 

You’d have to fake a racist tweet for the WWE to jump the gun again, and then follow it up with a fake misunderstanding involving a minority wrestler who agrees it was a misunderstanding, and has evidence it was. Like it was a zoomed in picture, but they reveal after a week the whole picture zoomed out. 

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WWE taking a turn into Disney territory is one of way of saving the E that I hadn't thought of. More steamboats, pirates, animals, and romance, please. A castle-tron? Why not? 

There only other choice is bringing back Virgil to script, produce, and star as active in-ring wrestling champion, general manager, and uniter of divided Raw and SmackDown brands. 

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19 hours ago, The Idiot King said:

Y'know as much as I selfishly hope for *more* when it comes to Zayn (and Owens) and would love all of my favorite wrestlers to be in one organization because I am a lazy consumer of wrestling, I really get what he's saying here. As the roster continues to thin out at WWE and the number of people who could reasonably be considered veterans teeters on nonexistent, Zayn and Owens have both been consistently featured and used and kept busy doing this or that for most of their time with the company. They're not exactly neglected or underutilized, even if I think the ceiling on both of them is a lot higher than what's been given to them.  A reboot couldn't hurt anyone (see the discussion around what a post-WWE Orton would be like), but for two guys who at this point probably are not ever going to be positioned as the face of the company (if they ever were), they are about as high up the totem pole as you can get, and there's not a lot of sense in walking away from that to be shuffled around in the limited space of AEW's main event scene.

Steen and Zayn were both two real hallmarks of the time where I started getting out of WWE and started getting into the indies, maybe 13 years or so ago.  I remember when Generico was the best match on every card he was on and Steen was out there doing great matches and amazing character work but everybody, including him, thought he'd never get a shot because of his build.

Both of them re-signing is like the awesome chef who worked at that small restaurant you always loved deciding he'd rather take a career at TGI Friday's.  I'd rather see both having great matches in cool angles instead of whatever surely dumb shit they're doing now in WWE.  BUT they're both human beings and I can't begrudge them wanting to make as much money for as little work as possible after the stuff they've been through.   

Edited by Technico Support
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1 hour ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

It’s going to be a while before somebody can try this again. The WWE won’t take the bait the next time. 
 

I think the catch is that they have to avoid it without putting themselves in a liable position. If someone refuses rehab then they’d have to either let them keep working anyway or pay them to sit home while they’re possibly sinking further into addiction (they did do this for Shawn for several years.)

 

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10 minutes ago, (BP) said:

I think the catch is that they have to avoid it without putting themselves in a liable position. If someone refuses rehab then they’d have to either let them keep working anyway or pay them to sit home while they’re possibly sinking further into addiction (they did do this for Shawn for several years.)

 

Hard to do now that they are a publicly traded company.

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On the one had, I feel like you have to be an uncaring asshole to gaslight your employer into thinking you had a drug relapse and showed up to work high/drunk.  The only reason anyone thinks this is ok is some of you hate Vince so much, you'll rationalize anything with "he deserves it".

On the other hand, if Hardy did fake a relapse. I do kind of admire his moxie.

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Maki Itoh gave her approval (granted this was months back, but if we can resurrect months old tweets)

 

Now I need KB, Sonny Kiss and Jamie Senegal doing The Beautiful People entrance ?

(Busanetico settling down)

 

 

Perfect setting for a 3 Faces of Foley deal with another gimmick thrown in down the road maybe

Edited by Hayabusa
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11 minutes ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

 The only reason anyone thinks this is ok is some of you hate Vince so much, you'll rationalize anything with "he deserves it".

It’s not good behavior and it’s especially classless since Jeff’s gotten so many last chances and repeated outpourings of support about his addiction issues.

Vince has had worse done to him and certainly has done worse to others. Deserves got nothing to do with it. 
 

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Ehhh… It’s not like they really wanted to do anything with him at this point, and if he asked for his release they would’ve if he agreed to not do a Hardy’s reunion for AEW. I think swerving them was his best play to get out of a contract Scott free without having to jump through too many hoops.

They’ll call him back anyway eventually.

Funny thing is, Jeff will never admit this is what he did. So he’ll constantly play coy with it.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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It’s less about WWE personnel’s feelings  and more that he freaked out a lot of fans and people that know him personally. He’s had a lot of public backslides with addiction, and this fit a pattern of behavior we’ve seen from other wrestlers shortly before they overdosed and died. It would be different if he’d worked WWE backstage and hadn’t made it such a spectacle. 

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Interesting note from an MVP interview on Red Velvet's awful hand me down finisher:

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On the reason he hated his Playmaker finishing move: “I hated that finishing move. It was given to me. If you remember, like three or four different people had it before me. They were all able to somehow get out of using it. And I got stuck with it. So I tried to make it look like a Heisman pose. What I hated about it was it relied a lot on the other guy to look good. So I wasn’t really a fan of the Playmaker and I can’t even tell you who I enjoyed hitting it on. Matt Hardy made it look great. Rey Mysterio. There were so many guys who made it look good. 

 

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On one hand, I get what @(BP) is saying regarding it's more about how Jeff scared a lot of good people.  On the other hand, anything labor can do to take some power back, especially in one-sided working relationships, is fine by me.  WWE can hang on to people who don't want to be there but also reserves the right to fire anyone, any time.  Seeing someone screw them for once is nice.

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https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2022/01/triple-h-reportedly-not-returning-to-wwe-nxt-anytime-soon-big-praise-for-shawn-michaels/

Vince McMahon is high on Shawn and the new system for NXT 2.0, certainly moreso over the previous indy smark darling project. On the other hand probably expect more changes over time for NXT 2.0., I don't think they're done with removing certain people.

Edited by Blue Dragon
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14 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Peacock has Premier League, the Olympics and did have the NHL

They also carry two of the three major European cycling events and rugby. 

Basically, if you like European sports, it's worth the money per month. But yeah, gotta be either into the WWE catalog or into Euro sports for Peacock to be worthwhile.

RE: A couple of things @Cobra Commandersaid, for some idiotic reason, NBC put most of their streamable and replayable events for the Summer Olympics on NBCOlympics.com. I don't think you could even watch some of the more popular events, like Men's Basketball, live on Peacock. It had an extremely limited selection. I ended up watching most of the Olympics on a computer monitor rather than on TV because it was just easier to watch directly through a browser. I get that some of the stuff, they wanted to save for primetime, but making it hard to stream everything, even delayed, through Peacock and using a whole other site to do it was weird.

Second, we were just talking about how the Ultimate Warrior's reign was sunk by not having enough big-time heel opponents to face, and that goes for Ron Simmons as well, who funny enough actually needed to face Rick Rude (except be booked to win) rather than not. He also maybe needed a return feud with Vader that he won decisively instead of the Barbarian/Cactus Jack-level opponents that he did get. 

Finally, @Tarheel Moneghetti, there's no need for you or anybody else to cape for Vince McMahon of all people. It's not so much a rationalization as it is an acceptance of the situation. Vince has done more than his share of shitting on and screwing over workers. Jeff Hardy doing this to him is a perfect example of reaping what he has sown. It is what it is.

Edited by SirSmellingtonofCascadia
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1 hour ago, (BP) said:

My idea: Jeff Hardy is part of the Hardy Back Office. He’s got one of those green visors, a big accountant calculator, an abacus, and he has no idea what he’s doing.

Hardy back office needs to be a thing, where AEW wrestlers go for the last 6 months of their contract.  We get the occasional skit where Peter Avalon and Joey Janela are arguing over Post-IT notes

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